Here’s how the latest nose-stretcher got rolling:

• 6 Jan 12:  Pakistani media carry goofy story about NATO troops wearing diapers in Afghanistan, and how convoys being stuck in Pakistan are delaying the Papmers deliveries.
• 8 Jan 12:  U.S. officials deny the troops need diapers.
• 9 Jan 12:  Blogger dissects how Pakistani “journalist” may have found the diaper info before he shared it with the world.
• 22 Jan 12:  The Taliban Info-machine shares the latest on ISAF troops fighting in diapers!

You can download all the above-listed material here (15 page PDF) if any of the links above don’t work.

Keep enjoying the lies!

• Naval Espionage Case (1)  The Chief of Defence Staff speaks.  “…. The CF takes the security of sensitive information very seriously, and we are ever mindful of the potentially adverse operational and strategic effects that can be created by unauthorized disclosure. For this reason, all CF personnel handling such material are required to observe stringent procedures to protect its security, and are expected to comport themselves ethically, and in a manner consistent with core military values of honour and loyalty ….”
• Naval Espionage Case (2)  Note to Toronto Sun columnist:  anybody working in intelligence who has access to stuff the bad guys want can become a spy, even Canadians.  “A Canuck spook? A Canook? You’re kidding. What beans would he spill? The secret ingredients in a beavertail? The Leafs’ next starting goalie? Rob Ford’s new diet? Unless you’ve been dead or a Sens fan, you know the Great White North is abuzz with our first spy brouhaha since, since, what, Gerda Munsinger? Gerda was an East German playgirl/spy who toyed with officials in the Diefenbaker government. She played hardest with Pierre Sevigny, associate minister of national defence. But Sevigny was no spy, though he qualified as, ahem, an undercover agent. Indeed, Canadians are rarely the spies in Canadian spy scandals. MP Fred Rose is the only example I can think of — and he was a Commie, exposed by Igor Gouzenko in the 1940s. Rose spent four years in jail. We’ve had good spies, such as Sir William “A Man Called Intrepid” Stephenson, who snooped on the bad guys. Otherwise, a Canadian spy seems as preposterous as a Jamaican bobsled team ….” 
• Afghanistan (1)  Some of Canada’s trainers are helping Afghan troops learn to read and write.  “As you read this article, you probably don’t stop to consider when and how you learned to read. Reading is second nature to you, and you can barely remember when it wasn’t. But what if you had to learn to read and write now? Learning to read and write as an adult is a challenge that the vast majority of Afghan National Army (ANA) recruits face. Thirty-five recruits sit quietly in a tent at the Kabul Military Training Centre (KMTC), a vast military base and training area located in the eastern fringes of Afghanistan’s capital city. With keen interest, the recruits track every move of the man at the front of the tent, an Afghan civilian teacher — proud and skilled in his craft — who methodically works through the day’s lesson. Today, the recruits are learning the first letters in the alphabet. There are 39 other tents just like this one, all lined up in neat rows as you would expect in an army camp, accommodating 1,400 more ANA army recruits in different phases of their literacy training. Nearly 9,000 ANA recruits are enrolled in basic training at KMTC, and almost all of them begin with learning to read, write, count and calculate ….”
• Afghanistan (2) “Kneeling in rocky dirt at her father’s graveside, Roya Shams whispered her farewells through the cloth mesh of her burqa’s veil. Just 17, a petite schoolgirl with a voice as soft as a puff of desert breeze, she dared to enter a poor Taliban stronghold to pray for the hero who taught her she was any man’s equal. Roya was packed and ready to fly to Canada to continue her high school education in safety at Ottawa’s Ashbury College. It is one of the country’s leading private schools, which prides itself on a progressive and caring learning environment. And it is Roya’s best hope of fulfilling a calling that has made her a vulnerable enemy of the Taliban ….”
• Taliban Propaganda Watch  ANOTHER commentary on the Marines pissing on Taliban bodies.
• Way Up North (1)  Newsflash – an army plans to bring the equipment it’ll use on a training exercise!  “They were Canada’s armoured workhorses in the dust and heat of Afghanistan, and now the military is taking its LAVs to the snowy tundra. A massive military exercise next month in the Western Arctic will involve light armoured vehicles — the first time in more than a generation that mechanized units will operate in the North. “Certainly with the new light armoured vehicles, this is the first time we’ve ever gone up in any significant strength to test our capabilities,” said Lt.-Col. Bill Fletcher, battle group commander for the Arctic Ram exercise, which runs from Feb. 14 to 26. Arctic Ram will bring more than 1,500 soldiers from bases in the south to the Northwest Territories. Personnel will include a range of units from the reservist Canadian Rangers, the largely aboriginal eyes and ears of the military in the North, to the Kandahar-tested troops of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. “It’s huge,” said Fletcher, who added that the army’s contribution to Arctic operations is usually between 100 and 150 soldiers. “From an army perspective, it’s one of the bigger ones.” ….”
• Way Up North (2)  A couple of think tank bits on the Arctic.
• Mark Collins on Cyclone chopper troubles (in a bit more detail than in the past)
• Congratulations to CBC for sharing the memo this story is based on.  “The deputy minister of defence approved a $375,000 renovation to his office last May, just three weeks after the department warned staff about saving money and impending layoffs of 2,100 civilian positions. A CBC News access to information request unveiled Robert Fonberg approved the accelerated work to his office in May after the new associate deputy minister, Matthew King, was hired. The renovations began in June 2011 and finished over a seven-week period, the document reveals, including moving King and his staff into the shared space at the DND headquarters at 101 Colonel By Dr. in Ottawa. The internal briefing note, which indicated the work would cost about $379,000, stated the renovation would “improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the deputy minister’s office.” A DND spokesperson corrected the total saying the department worked with Public Works to save about $4,000 by using existing furniture. A statement issued to CBC News also defended the renovations saying the office had gone without an upgrade since 1992. “New requirements emerged that are appropriate for the offices of the senior civilian leadership at national defence,” read a satement from the DND ….”
• Congrats to the individual involved, but one hopes that one day, it won’t be so newsworthy learning the first “woman” to do anything because it won’t be such a novelty anymore.  “Little did a young Elizabeth Crosier realize her dream of flying would eventually translate into her being the first Canadian female pilot of the CC-177 Globemaster III, the Canadian Forces’ largest cargo aircraft. Now just 25 years old, Captain Crosier has about 40 hours flying time on the giant aircraft. As her training continues, she is scheduled to fly some legs of a flight into Kabul, Afghanistan in February. “There’s a lot more mission planning involved in a theatre flight,” she notes. Capt Crosier plies her trade with 429 Transport Squadron at 8 Wing Trenton, Ont., perhaps a natural step for this child of a navigator father also employed by the military. She joined the Air Force in 2004 and received her wings Nov. 19, 2010 ….”
• This from ceasefire.ca on “lessons unlearned” in Rwanda:  “Earlier this month, civil conflict in South Sudan between the Murle and Nuer tribes resulted in the deaths of hundreds or possibly thousands of Murle people. A UN source said the number might be as high as 1,000, while a local Murle official estimated the number of deaths to be as high as 3,000 (Jeffrey Gettleman, “Born in Unity, South Sudan Is Torn Again,” New York Times, 12 January 2012). A UN peacekeeping mission, the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), is present to assist the government of the country, which achieved independence from Sudan in July 2011, in establishing peace and stability. However, as the New York Times reported, the peacekeepers seem to have been of little benefit to the civilians targeted in the recent violence ….” Note to ceasefire.ca: does sharing your concern with this mean you’ll soon be calling for the U.N. to allow peacekeepers to shoot back if required? Or to push for Canada to have robust forces that CAN shoot back if needed on the peacekeeping missions you say we should go back to?
• What’s Canada Buying?  “A qualified supplier to provide High Risk Search (HRS) Training (for counter-IED unit) …. (to) be provided (at) CFB Gagetown” – more details in bid document extract here (8 page PDF).
• “Flight training firm CAE Inc. (TSX:CAE) said Wednesday it has won a number of military contracts worth more than $100 million from Canada’s Department of National Defence, Malaysia, the German Air Force and the Royal Air Force. Montreal-based CAE said the contracts include major upgrades to Canada’s CC-130 Hercules airplane and CH-146 helicopter simulators, long-term support services for an AW139 full-flight simulator in Malaysia as well as the development of two Tornado maintenance trainers for the German Air Force and Royal Air Force. “As militaries around the world face the reality of declining budgets, they will increasingly turn to simulation-based training to reduce costs and maintain readiness,” Martin Gagne, CAE president of military products, training and services said in a statement. “CAE is well-positioned globally to address the growing use of simulation by governments and defence forces.” The company will also design and manufacture a CAE 3000 Series helicopter full-flight simulator for an undisclosed customer in Europe and has a helicopter training services contract for an undisclosed customer in Asia ….”